An edgy mix of wit, chills, and legal wrangling.
An offbeat legal thriller in which attorney Johnny Ocean becomes the target of a psychopathic killer.
Johnny Ocean, Upper East Side legal eagle and owner of a private investigation company, takes on a case handed to him by a colleague who presents it as a simple deposition assignment in a whopping $170,000,000 lawsuit between two sisters-in-law. In 1985, Babette Longwood, wealthy widow of the equally rich and powerful Edgar Longwood, either gave or loaned her brother Marcel Markham $170,000,000. Now it’s the late 1990s, and Marcel has died, leaving his entire estate to his widow, Pandora Markham. Babette wants her money. Pandora says the money was a gift to her husband and now belongs to her. Johnny will be representing the elusive Pandora. Within less than 48 hours, having not yet even spoken with his new client, Johnny receives some explicit threats of bodily harm from a man identifying himself as Bill Rogers. Then a sexually provocative videotape of Pandora is left outside his door, a package of documents from the client is delivered to him, and he’s shot in the shoulder by a gun-wielding home intruder. Other attorneys might give up—but not Golub’s gullibly captivated hero. Fortunately, Johnny’s obsessively loyal Sikh butler, Mr. K (doubling as an investigator), calls upon his sword-carrying Sikh community to provide protection for his employer. Golub’s complicated narrative plumbs the seedy underbelly of New York’s upper class as well as the corruption permeating the Surrogate’s Court. The author’s decades of experience as a celebrity civil litigator are reflected in his intricate courtroom scenes, which seem authentic despite an unlikely number of ex parte (that is, when not all parties are present in court) interactions between the judge and opposing counsel. The story also has a Chinese connection that begins back when Chiang Kai-shek was president of Taiwan; this adds a layer of intriguing history to the murder mystery/legal drama. The novel’s brisk pace slows only during the unnecessarily prolonged passages detailing Johnny’s erotic fantasies about Pandora. A mind-bending final twist will leave readers chuckling.
An edgy mix of wit, chills, and legal wrangling.Pub Date: April 20, 2022
ISBN: 9798806218798
Page Count: 379
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Dec. 9, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Trust no one in this over-the-top tale of deception and revenge.
Dead bodies turn up in the first sentence of the prologue in McFadden’s latest domestic thriller.
The mystery of who died is at the pulsating heart of this propulsive tale. As Chapter 1 begins, Naomi arrives home to find the locks changed on the front door of the gorgeous home she shares with her husband, Jeremy, and their 5-year-old son, Teddy. Jeremy steps out the front door and convinces Naomi to move out while he has their home renovated, a plan Naomi knows nothing about. It’s all a ruse, though, as the next day Jeremy tells her he wants a divorce. Naomi is shellshocked and soon discovers that Jeremy is having an affair with Veronica, a beautiful younger woman. What seems at first like a stereotypical story about a man who leaves his wife turns into something else when Naomi decides she’ll do anything to get Veronica away from Jeremy and Teddy, and Veronica decides to fight for what she thinks she deserves. Fans of stalker novels will cringe with delight as creepy things start to happen. Teddy’s stuffed elephant, a gift from Veronica, is found impaled on a kitchen knife; Naomi suspects Jeremy is gaslighting her and that Veronica tried to poison her. A weird confrontation among Jeremy, Veronica, and Naomi at Teddy’s birthday party, to which Naomi shows up uninvited, is priceless. There are three main characters, and any or all of them may be unreliable narrators. Packing the plot with dark, gasp-inducing twists, McFadden outdoes herself in a story about how highly emotional people engage in risky behavior to get what they want—but in this novel, for better or worse, not everyone will survive.
Trust no one in this over-the-top tale of deception and revenge.Pub Date: May 26, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249631
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
BOOK TO SCREEN
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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